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fullvietFX

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have a few questions before I install it, since this is my first SSD.

1. Do I have to install any special drivers? I keep hearing about AHCI and so on.
2. What is TRIM? How do I turn it on?
3. I know I should turn off auto-defrag, anything else?

I tried searching but couldn't really come up with anything.

UPDATED:
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1. Just let Windows 7 install it's AHCI driver.
2. TRIM is a command that frees up unused blocks automatically so the drive doesn't have to when it decides to write to it, which causes a performance hit.*
3. Windows 7 will turn off defrag for the SSD automatically. The service will still be on, but the OS will not run it on the SSD unless you tell it to.

* Very simple, but not overly accurate description. Here's a link to Wikipedia that might be of more use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM_(SSD_command)
 
So basically I don't need to install anything? On the ASUS page there were AHCI drivers, just let Windows 7 use it's own? TRIM automatically will run? Thanks again for the help.
 
fullvietFX said:
So basically I don't need to install anything? On the ASUS page there were AHCI drivers, just let Windows 7 use it's own? TRIM automatically will run? Thanks again for the help.
Click to expand...

Just let Windows install the Microsoft AHCI driver. They pass the TRIM command down automatically, so there's nothing to do. All you need to make sure is that the drive is set in AHCI mode in the BIOS before you install Windows.

TRIM is done in the background, completely transparent from the user.

On a side note, I can't wait for my Vertex 2 to come in. Just a word of advice to you, don't go over board benchmarking that drive with CrystalDisk Mark or AS-SSD. The controller will automatically slow itself down once you write too much information. It's made for a server environment, where longevity is needed. You can read more information about this over at OCZ's forums.
 
SicKlown42012 said:
Just let Windows install the Microsoft AHCI driver. They pass the TRIM command down automatically, so there's nothing to do. All you need to make sure is that the drive is set in AHCI mode in the BIOS before you install Windows.

TRIM is done in the background, completely transparent from the user.

On a side note, I can't wait for my Vertex 2 to come in. Just a word of advice to you, don't go over board benchmarking that drive with CrystalDisk Mark or AS-SSD. The controller will automatically slow itself down once you write too much information. It's made for a server environment, where longevity is needed. You can read more information about this over at OCZ's forums.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips, I'll just run CrystalDisk Mark once to compare it to my 300GB Raptor. :D
 
wuttz said:
mind running ATTO benchmark?
would love to see the speeds!
Click to expand...

Not sure what ATTO is, but here are the results from my old HDDs. The SSD arrives tomorrow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WD Raptor 300GB

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 113.914 MB/s
Sequential Write : 113.445 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 52.761 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 69.387 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.791 MB/s [ 193.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.618 MB/s [ 395.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.910 MB/s [ 222.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.748 MB/s [ 426.7 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 32.7% (91.3/279.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2010/11/28 12:38:29
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WD Caviar Green 1.5TB 64MB

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 78.510 MB/s
Sequential Write : 75.453 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 35.249 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 49.607 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.530 MB/s [ 129.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.206 MB/s [ 294.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.608 MB/s [ 148.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.220 MB/s [ 297.8 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [D: 46.1% (429.2/931.5 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2010/11/28 13:08:32
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)
 
for comparison- my vertex2 120gb shows just over 42,000 IOPS under 4k-QD32 read and around 39,000 IOPS for write. dont go crazy benchmarking- no reason to write many gigs of data to the drive. a few passes of 100mb is enough to give you some good usable numbers without overly wearing the flash memory.

ATTO uses compressable data (like strings of zeros), which sandforce drives shine with. you will not see the same speed while using crystal disk mark, as it uses uncompressable data and will be slower on sandforce drives. remember though, that neither are really a true representation of real world usage patterns.
 
Hmm if i'm not wrong Intel RST 10 drivers are better then the MS ACHI drivers. There was some performance issues and TRIM problems with the MS ACHI drivers, it works better on the Intel RST especially on SF based SSD's.
 
psyside said:
Hmm if i'm not wrong Intel RST 10 drivers are better then the MS ACHI drivers. There was some performance issues and TRIM problems with the MS ACHI drivers, it works better on the Intel RST especially on SF based SSD's.
Click to expand...

Do all motherboards support Intel RST 10?
 
P45 is 4 series. Just download the English only one, unless you need multilanguage.
 
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